june07c.indd


Andy Bridges W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  

National Library Legislative Day 2007 
May 1 and 2, 2007, marked the 33rd Annual 
National Library Legislative Day events. This 
year, more than 420 participants from 47 
states came to Washington, D.C., to speak 
with their Members of Congress about the 
needs of libraries in the areas of funding, 
telecommunications, copyright, privacy, and 
government information. 

ACRL President Pamela Snelson and 
President­Elect Julie Todaro were in at­
tendance, along with ACRL staff including 
David Connolly, program officer; Mary Ellen 
Davis, executive director; and Kara Malenfant, 
scholarly communications and government 
relations specialist. 

On May 1, ACRL hosted a luncheon that 
featured George Mehaffy, vice president 
for academic leadership and change at the 
American Association of State Colleges and 
Universities. Mehaffy’s presentation was on 
“Developing Informed and Engaged Citizens: 
The Imperative for Higher Education,” and 
ACRL is set to podcast an interview with him 
about that presentation (blogs.ala.org/acrl­
podcast.php). 

Pictures from National Library Legislative 
Day can be found on the ALA Washing­
ton Office’s Flickr page at www.fl ickr.com 
/photos/alawash. National Library Legislative 
Day is sponsored by the Chief Offi cers of 
State Library Agencies, the District of Colum­
bia Library Association, the Special Libraries 
Association, and ALA. 

Grassroots advocacy page 
The ALA Washington Office recently unveiled 
its Grassroots Advocacy Web page, which is 
located in the Getting Involved section of the 
Washington Office Web site at www.alawash. 
org. The site is intended to lay out very clearly 
exactly what resources are available from the 
Washington Office Web site, along with some 

Andy Bridges is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi  ce, e-mail: abridges@alawash.org 

strategies for optimizing those resources. 
Some of the resources include: 

• District Dispatch Blog & Podcast, 
blogs.ala.org/districtdispatch.php. View 
press releases, ALAWONs, and virtually all vital 
information from the Washington Offi ce. The 
District Dispatch is also an archive for past 
press releases and ALAWONs. Do you prefer 
to listen to updates about federal issues, policy, 
and advocacy on your iPod, in your car, or at 
your desk? Then check out the podcast series 
produced by the Washington Offi ce. 

• ALA Washington Of fice Newsline 
(ALAWON), www.ala.org/ala/washof f 
/washnews/news.htm. Receive action 
alerts and updates about federal issues in 
your e­mail inbox by subscribing to ALAWON: 
the American Library Association Washington 
Office Newsline. The news alerts give you an 
overview of the issue and contain links back 
to the Washington Office Web pages, where 
you can get background information or the 
history of an issue. 

•  L e g i s l a t ive  A c t i o n  C e n t e r,  w w w.  
capwiz.com/ala/home. A short version of 
each ALAWON is reprinted here in the form 
of “TAKE ACTION” alerts. Simply click on the 
alert of your choice and view the text of the 
alert. Then, using the e­mail form provided 
on the Web site, send an e­mail about the 
alert to your Members of Congress. You can 
copy the text of the alert into your e­mail, 
but be sure to type in a personalized story or 
description about how the legislation you are 
writing about impacts your library. 

• Federal Librar y Legislative & Ad-
vocacy Network (FLLAN). FLLAN is a 
rapid­response grassroots network made up 
of individuals and groups who have made 
a commitment to actively and immediately 
respond to calls for action related to federal 
issues. For example, the ACRL grassroots 
network is part of the FLLAN network, but 
individual academic librarians, who may or 
may not be part of the ACRL grassroots net­
work, also participate in FLLAN. 

June 2007  387 C&RL News 

www.ala.org/ala/washoff
mailto:abridges@alawash.org
www.alawash
http:ickr.com